Friday, January 31, 2014

That would be none other than David Wildstein, (pictured on your left, with the glasses)a high school friend of the governor whom he appointed to head the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which controls the George Washington bridge, a major traffic artery between New Jersey and New York that was apparently closed deliberately for 4 hours during rush hour as political revenge on Fort Lee’s Democratic mayor, Mark Sokolich for not endorsing Christie in his re-election run for governor last year. At least one woman died as a result.

Wildstein was fired by Christie, after a ridiculous press conference that boiled down to "Hey I didn't know nuthin'." He claimed that he hardly ever even spoke to David Wildstein, someone he's been intimate friends with for years.

So Wildstein, angered at being hung out to dry had his attorney Alan Zegas tell the media, according to Pravda-on-the Hudson who broke the story that 'evidence exists' that Christie knew all along what was going on. If that's true, the old question of 'what did he know and when did he know it' just got answered.

This is making big news among the pundit class, but I could care less from the standpoint of Christie's political prospects.He's been a lousy governor fiscally and in terms of social policy as well as an Obama ally, and I have no use for him. I can't imagine why anyone else would, especially anyone who considers themselves a conservative. The blimp has crashed and burned, and Christie has learned what all RINOs learn eventually...Democrats and their shills in the dinosaur media will kiss your posterior endlessly as long as you serve their purposes and attack other Republicans. They will ooh and ah,write flattering articles, give you favorable press and literally fellate you on the air as one of those wonderful 'moderate Republicans'...until you are perceived as a threat. And then they will demonize you and accuse you of everything from cheating on your taxes to luring little children into your ginger bread house and eating them.

Buy the ticket, take the ride.

But for giggles, just compare this treatment with the treatment Hillary or president Obama got over Benghazi, Fast and Furious, IRS-Gate or any of the other myriad scandals the administration has been involved with.

At this point, it doesn't even matter anymore if Christie knew or didn't know about the bridge closings. It'll still be used to beat him over the head and destroy him, no matter how cozy he got with the President to help him win the 2012 election. And it serves him right.

"A little over a month ago, the President commuted the sentences of eight men and women who were sentenced under severe -- and out of date -- mandatory minimum sentencing laws," Cole said.

"But the President’s grant of commutations for these eight individuals is only a first step. There is more to be done, because there are others like the eight who were granted clemency. There are more low-level, non-violent drug offenders who remain in prison, and who would likely have received a substantially lower sentence if convicted of precisely the same offenses today. This is not fair, and it harms our criminal justice system.

"To help correct this, we need to identify these individuals and get well-prepared petitions into the Department of Justice. It is the Department’s goal to find additional candidates, who are similarly situated to the eight granted clemency last year, and recommend them to the President for clemency consideration."

Cole is all but ordering the various state bar associations to make lists of candidates for early release and write up their commutation petitions.

I'm certain you can translate this.

While Cole described described qualified clemency candidates as non-violent, low-level drug offenders not involved in gang or cartel activity, first-time offenders and those without what Cole called 'an extensive criminal history', the reality is that a great deal of leeway is going to be given on what constitutes 'an extensive criminal history', just as illegal aliens who are candidates for the President's illegal 'Dream Act' amnesty or similar amnesty ready programs are to be forgiven for felonies like drunk driving, theft and certain types of assault.I mean really,how many first time offenders without lengthy rap sheets get long sentences? And I can also tell you from experience that most drug dealers indeed have a long criminal history (it's not like you can get a degree and set up shop) and are connected to a gang, one of the various mafias or some organization involved in wholesale importing. Like any other retailer, drug dealers need to have a wholesaler supplying them with product. And anyone trying to sell without that connection as a freelancer usually ends up being warned once and being 'invited' to become an employee, as opposed to tasking a dirt nap - if he's lucky.

The real trick here is to destroy policies like California's 3 strikes that puts career criminals with 3 felonies in jail for life and have played a major role in cutting down on crime.And I don't doubt in the least it will be administered mostly on racial grounds, given how our Justice Department works these days.

This won't change things much in New York, where the citizenry has already been effectively disarmed. But I wouldn't be at all surprised if it wasn't also a move to try to gin up calls for gun confiscation in other places.

After all, a recently released felon isn't going to go out and get a job at McDonald's or Walmart, especially in the new Obama economy. Most of them are going to go back to the profession they know, armed with tools of that trade obtained from their connections.

Alea iacta est...the Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and we have the results for this week's Watcher's Council match up.

The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living - Marcus Tulius Cicero

It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives - Samuel Johnson

To the living we owe respect, but to the dead we owe only the truth- Voltaire

This week's winner, Joshuapundit's Obama's Loving Requiem For A Prominent Communist - And Mine is an obituary. Singer Pete Seeger passed away this week, and President Obama saw fit to issue a handsome and fulsome ( and revealing) tribute out of the White House. Since I knew a bit about whom Pete Seeger was and about his career, I thought I'd write one of my own. Here's a slice:

The mask is coming off, even if it never covered much to begin with.Pete Seeger is dead today, at 94. And this is what our Dear Leader had to say about it:

"Once called “America’s tuning fork,” Pete Seeger believed deeply in the power of song. But more importantly, he believed in the power of community – to stand up for what’s right, speak out against what’s wrong, and move this country closer to the America he knew we could be. Over the years, Pete used his voice – and his hammer – to strike blows for worker’s rights and civil rights; world peace and environmental conservation. And he always invited us to sing along. For reminding us where we come from and showing us where we need to go, we will always be grateful to Pete Seeger. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Pete’s family and all those who loved him."

Now, aside from being someone who made quite a contribution to American music, Pete Seeger was also a hard core communist and apologist for Stalin during the time when 'Uncle Joe' murdered over 100 million people. The forced collectivization, the murder of political opponents, the show trials, the forced famine in the Ukraine that murdered at least 3 million people, the gulags...none of it mattered at all to Pete Seeger, that 'champion of justice and freedom'.By his own admission, he was a red diaper baby, someone who was brought into the party by his parents and raised under what the Comintern called Party Discipline. That meant you followed the orders of the Kremlin, no questions asked. And that's exactly what Pete Seeger did. He claimed that he 'drifted out of the party in the 1950's', but he never once lifted his voice to oppose Soviet tyranny until the game was almost over, in 1982 when he made statements in favor of Poland's Solidarity movement.After the 1939 Hitler-Stalin pact, there were some commies who woke up to what that meant and left the Party. But not Pete Seeger! Whatever Hitler was doing to the Jews was no never mind to him. As a member of the Almanac singers (later called the Weavers) with a fellow party member, Woody Guthrie, he totally followed the Moscow line, calling for America to stay out of WWII...here's a sample lyric: "Franklin D., listen to me,/You ain’t a-gonna send me ’cross the sea.”He and his fellow Party members lobbied aggressively against aid to Britain, American re-armament and against FDR's selective service act, which passed in 1940 by one vote. If it hadn't, things would have been very different after Pearl Harbor. The Almanac's 78 recording, Songs for John Doe was so subversive even Eleanor Roosevelt, a fan of the group, denounced it.That changed abruptly in June, 1940, when Hitler invaded Russia. Then, Seeger and his friends started singing a brand new tune, urging America to get into the war and save Stalin's posterior. In a true 1984-style example of revisionism, Seeger and his pals had all the available copies of Songs for John Doe recalled and destroyed...although enough copies remained in a few people's hands so that we can see exactly how hypocritical, radical and anti-American these people were.After the war, Seeger remained active in shilling for Stalin and his successors. He was one of the leaders calling for clemency for the Rosenbergs, the spies who gave Stalin the atom bomb. Yes, the great world peace advocate had no problem with a homicidal maniac and mass murderer like Stalin getting the bomb.In 1945, Seeger put together something called People's Songs, Inc, an organization designed to “create, promote and distribute songs of labor and the American People.”Here's what the California Senate fact finding committee had to say about it:

"People's Songs is a vital Communist front … one which has spawned a horde of lesser fronts in the fields of music, stage entertainment, choral singing, folk dancing, recording, radio transcriptions and similar fields. It especially is important to Communist proselytizing and propaganda work because of its emphasis on appeal to youth, and because of its organization and technique to provide entertainment for organizations and groups as a smooth opening wedge for Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist propaganda."

Seeger was actually subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1955, but refused to answer questions about his communist past and eventually refused to answer subpoenas. He was actually tried and convicted of contempt of Congress, but his conviction was overturned over a technicality.Along with his commendable support for civil rights for blacks in America, Seeger continued to be a shill for the Soviets and ultra-Left causes throughout the years.He was a big advocate of unilateral disarmament by the West, including the Soviet's phony International Peace Petition. In spite of his image as a champion of freedom, he had nothing to say about the Soviet repression of democratic revolutions in Hungary in 1956, or in Czechoslovakia in 1968. And of course, he was a supporter of Fidel Castro and his executioner, Che Guevara.He was predictably against the Vietnam War, but had nothing to say about the North Vietnamese gulags and fascist repression after the war, or Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge's Killing Fields in Cambodia.
He opposed President Reagan's rearmament of the West after the Carter years, and was huge advocate of he Nuclear Freeze Movement of the 1980s, a Soviet-sponsored initiative that would have frozen Soviet nuclear and military superiority in place and stopped Reagan from defeating the Evil Empire.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Kevin Williamson NROforGreat Caesar’s Ghost submitted by Joshuapundit. Written the day of President Obama's SOTU snoozefest, it takes apart the entire institution with wit and savage precision. Do read it.

See you next week! Don't forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week's Watcher's Forum, as the Council and their invited special guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day with short takes and weigh in...don't you dare miss it. And don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.....'cause we're cool like that!

Thursday, January 30, 2014

OK, so this isn't your typical south side or west side Chicago tavern. I've been in a number of them, and they don't look like this. And some of the dialogue seems a bit staged in places.

But I put this up because here, you see black voices saying what I'm amazed more black people aren't saying to a president whose policies have so disproportionally hurt black Americans, particularly the working class, the unemployed and the ones who, in the words of one of the people in this film 'aren't on the top rungs of the ladder.'

Most blacks still support President Obama on racial grounds, but there's a real groundswell of discontent when it comes to issues like dysfunctional and substandard education, amnesty for illegal aliens, rabid support for homosexual marriage and the job killing policies this president endorses.

It could be tapped and expanded if the GOP establishment actually treated American blacks as something other than a demographic to be pandered to. And the same goes for Latinos.

Here's a winning political philosophy in a nutshell, courtesy of one of my fave Black Uhuru tunes:

As your typical politically correct university, they are as sensitive to anyone bringing up the merest accusation of racism as an eyeball is to grit.

But they also have a legal responsibility to protect students on campus, one that could cost them a huge amount of money if they flub it for any reason.

There's something of a crime wave going on at U of Minnesota. School officials reported there there has been a major increase in crime in and around the University, an increase of 27 percent over the last few years.

Their normal policy when a robbery or assault occurs and the perp is at large is to send out a crime alert with a description and whatever other details are available to warn potential student victims. Last November after a student was arrested incorrectly by campus police for a break in, a letter from the members of the African American and African Studies, Black Faculty and Staff Association, Black Graduate and Professional Student Association, Black Men’s Forum, Black Student Union and Huntley House for African American Males to university President Eric Kaler and Pamela Wheelock, the vice president of University Services.

It demanded that future crime alert descriptions avoid any mention of race in the descriptions of suspects being sought.

“[We] unanimously agree that campus safety should be of the UMPD’s utmost importance; however, efforts to reduce crime should never be at the expense of our Black men, or any specific group of people likely to be targeted. In addition to causing Black men to feel unsafe and distrusted, racial profiling is proven to inflict negative psychological effects on its victims.”

At Wednesday’s forum, Ian Taylor Jr., president of the Black Men’s Forum, said members of his organization feel threatened when the use of a racial description is given in the crime alerts.

“The repeated black, black, black suspect,” Taylor said. “And what that does it really discomforts the mental and physical comfort for students on campus because they feel like suspicions begin to increase.”

'Repeated black, black suspect'? Could that be, just possibly because the majority of the suspects
and perpetrators just happen to be black males?

The letter also laid out a number of recommendations, including requiring campus police officers to attend diversity training and an official policy of including with each alert a notice warning students about the dangers of racial profiling.

The university officials are said to be 'working with black student and facility organizations', but they apparently weighed political correctness against campus sdafety and common sense ( not to mention their own liability) and came out on the side of a safe campus environment.

Pamela Wheelock, the vice president of University Services, replied to the letter, stating:

“I am concerned that members of your organizations and others in the University community believe there to be an increase in racial profiling,” Wheelock said. “As I stated earlier profiling will not be tolerated on campus. If there is a concern or complaint about University police practices, both Chief Hestness and I are committed to investigating the matter promptly and thoroughly.

I firmly believe that a well-informed community is an asset to public safety…I believe that sharing more information in our Crime Alerts, not less, is most beneficial in terms of public safety, especially when that information is available.

The information we share can include a complete description of suspects, unique identifying characteristics such as an accent or a distinctive piece of clothing, or the description of vehicles involved.

We have reviewed what other Big Ten Universities and local colleges and universities include, and our practice of including the race of a suspect when it is available from a victim’s description is consistent with their practices.”

No less than Jesse Jackson himself once famously confessed to his own embarrassed relief when he heard footsteps behind him and turned around and saw white teenagers rather than black ones.

Plenty of whites commit crimes, and the majority of blacks are certainly law abiding. But the unpleasant fact remains that the black Americans commit far more crimes per capita in proportion to their percentage of the population than whites do.

That's a cultural issue rather than a racial one, and one we need to face up to and work together to solve for the benefit of everyone. Whining about 'profiling' isn't how that gets done.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

A Chinese man successfully used a single First Class plane ticket to eat and drink for free for a year.

His strategy? Ridiculously simple....book, eat and repeat.

Once he found out that the voucher on his first class ticket entitled him to partake in the VIP amenities at China’s Xi’an Airport which included a free meal at the lounge, he simply flashed the ticket, feasted on dishes which included a full buffet and ”Western food”. And then, instead of leaving through the gate,he just re-booked his flight for the next day!

According to the newspaper, staff members from China Eastern Airlines finally realized that the itinerary for one ticket had been postponed hundreds of times. So they began to investigate.

The airline told the media the company had no way to stop such a “rare act.”

Nor was there really anything they could do, really. The man was a First class ticket holder, really and he was entitled to eat at the VIP lounge..and there's really no way to prove that he changed his flight over 300 times just to chow down at China Eastern Airlines' expense.

So what we have here is the perfect crime, a year's worth of free food and drink that cost nothing except the price of a First Class airplane ticket..which was cashed in for a full refund!

I'm going to have to avoid using the old cliche about there being no such thing as a free lunch.

As I've said before, I watch this garbage so you don't have to, but it's getting more difficult every year.I made a few remarks immediately afterwards while posting the Watcher's Council nominations this week, and that's really most of what you need to know:

"L'Estat is Moi! Apres Moi, le deluge!" Yes, we are officially back in the days of the French Bourbons and the ineffectual, narcissistic and parasitic pre-revolution days of Louis XVI.

He is, given his own words, a failure. The five years of inequality and economic stagnation he talked about belong to him, as much as he tries to put the blame elsewhere.

So now, he informs us that he plans to rule with a pen, to stop 'standing still' and rule even more than he already has by diktat, decree and executive order..even if he has to precipitate a constitutional crisis to do it.

Oh, and that bit of drama about 'forcing' Federal contractors to pay a minimum wage of $10.10 an hour? The contractors will do so gladly, with a cynical smirk or two, because they know they won't be picking up the bill, and neither will the president - the taxpayers will. It's a perfect example of this president's signature dishonesty and contempt for the rest of us.

It was embarrassing to listen to and even more embarrassing to reflect that this is whom we have leading our country.

Embarrassing isn't the word for it.

However, now that I've had the chance to recover a bit, there are a few more points of interest I could mention.

President Obama's speech reminded me of a used car pitchman, using the same script once again because that's all he knows and hey, it worked in the past didn't it? Even some of his more intelligent supporters are scratching their heads. If this is the year of action, what's been going on for the last five? if the economy's doing so great, why are so many people still on food stamps? Why are prices on staples and utilities skyrocketing? Where are all the jobs? Why did I lose my healthcare when I was supposed to be able to keep it, and why do I have to buy new coverage at five times the price for higher deductibles and a lot less coverage? OK, I love the part about rebuilding are infrastructure and creating all those new jobs, but wasn't that what that trillion dollar stimulus was supposed to be for? Those shovel ready jobs?

Yes the doubt is setting in.

Speaking of utilities, the president made an off hand mention of them that might be worth noticing.That shift to a 'cleaner energy economy' and those 'tough choices along the way' he was talking about? Guess who's going to be suffering the consequences of those 'tough choices'? I guarantee you, it won't be him.

Yes, what our president was saying, essentially, is that if you like your current appliances and the amount of energy you have available 24-7, you're going to be able to keep it. Just like your health insurance and your doctor. I just had someone from the local power company try to talk me into replacing my current meter with a brand spanking new 'smart-grid' model. Fortunately, I understand that the new meters allow the power company to shut off my power and appliances remotely at their whim or the government's, in the Holy Name of Global Warming, so I declined. President Obama and has EPA undoubtedly want to fix it so declining isn't an option anymore. Just like in the UK.

And the president touting for more green energy scams? I think we've seen how those work, haven't we? Can you say, Solyndra, half a billion dollars plundered? Sure you can.

Other stuff? Of course there was the shout out for amnesty. But I noticed that Republicans Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor were on their feet clapping like seals along with the Democrats. Something is in the works.

And of course, there was also a bit of outre' racism for the president's most loyal supporters..."I’m reaching out to some of America’s leading foundations and corporations on a new initiative to help more young men of color facing tough odds stay on track and reach their full potential."

'Reaching out' in President Obama's usual context means threats and arm twisting. Had he said 'disadvantaged' or something like that, it would have been something else. But what he wants is raced-based quotas, special set-asides and 'diversity' positions that specifically exclude whites and Asians, or else. I give him credit for being honest enough to say so.

The most ludicrous part of the speech was towards the end, and contained a brief wrap up of the president's wonderful record on foreign policy.

He started out with some frankly insulting garbage about the military which you might have missed unless you actually are aware of what's going on. Check this out:

"And I know this chamber agrees that few Americans give more to their country than our diplomats and the men and women of the United States Armed Forces.

Tonight, because of the extraordinary troops and civilians who risk and lay down their lives to keep us free, the United States is more secure."

Yes, that's exactly why the president and his team slashed retirement and medical benefits to the tune of $6 billion on veterans and on no one else in that ridiculous new budget bill, especially not the numerous bureaucrats in his entourage. And oddly enough, there's another disgraceful decision Paul Ryan was instrumentally involved in.

It's why the president gutted Tri-Care, something millions of vets depended on so the White House could pay for ObamaCare. And his real feelings about the military were pretty clear a long time ago, when he tried to take away our wounded warrior's VA benefits as early as 2009, and why so many vets have been tossed out of the service just shy of receiving their pensions.

The president didn't go back to his old mantra of how 'al-Qaeda is on the run' (they're not, and in large part because of President Obama's actions). But he once again did some chest thumping about Iraq, and emphasized that yes, we're definitely pulling out of AfPak this year. I'm sure the Taliban were glad to hear that confirmed publicly once again.

He wants to close Club Gitmo, an odd notion for someone who mouths so many platitudes about fighting terrorists, since so many of them have gone right back to their old activities once they were kicked loose. And of course, he let the nation and the Ayatollahs know that he'll veto any attempts by Congress to try and actually stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

But you knew that.

So what are we left with here, after all this recycled, deceptive and tedious horse manure?

First off, the disappointment and fatigue of the Left is palpable, no matter what they say. Many of these people, for the most part, are socialists and statists who expected that by now, taxes would be up to 75% like France, a lot of those evil banksters would be in jail, cap and trade and other global warming initiatives would be firmly in place, there would be nation-wide gay marriage, the country would be disarmed with draconian gun confiscation, we'd be totally disengaged foreign policy-wise, even more industries would be nationalized and everything would be going just great.

Instead, they're left with a feeling of failure and disappointment. Five years in, things are definitely not going great. They had 4 years of total rule in Congress, two while Bush was president and two with Obama in the White House when they could do anything they wanted. And yes, they did a great deal of damage, damage that will take years to repair. But they didn't get most of what they wanted, simply because of our Dear Leader's incompetence and self-indulgence, something most of them will not dare admit, but enough have so that you can see it and smell it in the air. Oh, some of Obama's cronies and donors got to pillage the treasury, but this was definitely not the hope n' change they were sold. On election night, these people were celebrating. Now, they're unhappy, with diminished expectations.

All they're left with, really, is a lot of words, a number of nasty scandals and the dysfunctional and unpopular ObamaCare.

And the rest of us? We're pretty disappointed as well.

In 2010, Sarah Palin and Jim DeMint mobilized the Tea Party, took back the House and elected enough Republicans to the Senate that we figured they would at least stop the rot and curb the worst abuses. Instead, a number of 'conservatives' happily became part of the GOP establishment, especially the leadership. They betrayed the people who put them in office and mostly caved in and stood by while this president was committing his worst abuses, spending their energies instead on making war on the Tea Party and those Republicans unwilling to join them in going along to get along.

Our expectations are likewise diminished, and you could see that in the over 3 million Republicans who simply stayed home on election day in 2012.

So that's the real state of the union..depressed, tired and beaten down.

This is very dangerous, especially for our side. Because part of the Left's strategy, at least the ones in the top, is to make you shrug your shoulders and say, 'what's the use'? They're counting on another 4 years with Hillary to finish the job of wrecking our Republic.

Don't do it.Stay focused.

This is by no means a rah rah to get behind the current Republican party. They've been found wanting once too often and have proven to be unworthy of trust. After all of the nonsense that went down during the Bush Administration, the GOP, resurrected by Governor Palin and Senator DeMint was given one last chance to make things right in 2010. Instead, with a number of honorable exceptions, they embraced cowardice, self-interest and dysfunctional politics at their worst, and Palin and DeMint's reward for saving them was essentially to be run out of the party.

There is no basis to trust the GOP establishment any more. They would rather run a despicable RINO like Chris Christie, lose in 2016 and maintain their entrenched and entitled positions than run a conservative whom could energize the base and could win. . You can also expect them to make active war on conservative candidates rather than trying to defeat Democrats.

What needs to happen is a revolution..an electoral revolution like the one Ronald Reagan achieved in 1980.And this year, 2014, is where it starts.

For starters, it will be important to completely engage at the local level, realizing that this is going to be a two front war.

Since it's important not to get sucked into voting for Democrat funded Libertarian third party candidates and splitting the conservative vote, the idea is to force the party to accept the most conservative candidates out there who can get elected by getting actively involved in grass roots campaigning, primarying RINOs and creatures like John Boehner, Kevin McCarthy, Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan. They need to pay a price for their treachery. Reagan's old and proven formula was to unite behind the most conservative and principled candidate available, and to make sure he or she knows that 2 years isn't that far away. It won't be perfect, but it will even put RINOs who survive on notice that times have changed.

The same thing goes in the senate. We need to unite and get solidly behind the most conservative Republican candidate available who's electable and force the GOP to move to where its base is.

At the same time, a message needs to be sent to the RNC and the RNSC that times have changed for them too. It's not enough merely to avoid giving them your money - they will always find a fat cat around somewhere, or the candidates will. But they do understand numbers. Massive phone calls, faxes and e-mails to these groups demanding that they cease being functionaries of the establishment and start paying attention to the base are going to have an effect, whether they like it or not. So will grass roots political victories.

It's either that, or somehow raise the money and take the time to create a brand new party. It can be done, but it means ceding the 2016 elections to the Clinton and another 4 years of destruction.

My way at least has a fighting chance of stopping them.

Think about it. Unwittingly, President Obama has given us an opportunity.

"L'Estat is Moi! Apres Moi, le deluge!" Yes, we are officially back in the days of the French Bourbons and the ineffectual, narcissistic and parasitic pre-revolution days of Louis XVI.

He is, given his own words, a failure. The five years of inequality and economic stagnation he talked about belong to him, as much as he tries to put the blame elsewhere.

So now, he informs us that he plans to rule with a pen, to stop 'standing still' and rule even more than he already has by diktat, decree and executive order..even if he has to precipitate a constitutional crisis to do it.

Oh, and that bit of drama about 'forcing' Federal contractors to pay a minimum wage of $10.10 an hour? The contractors will do so gladly, with a cynical smirk or two, because they know they won't be picking up the bill, and neither will the president - the taxpayers will. It's a perfect example of this president's signature dishonesty and contempt for the rest of us.

It was embarrassing to listen to and even more embarrassing to reflect that this is whom we have leading our country.

Welcome to the Watcher's Council, a blogging group consisting of some of the most incisive blogs in the 'sphere, and the longest running group of its kind in existence. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.Then we vote on the best two posts, with the results appearing on Friday morning.

Council News:

As you might remember last week at this time we said farewell to our dear friends and Council mates The Mellow Jihadi and The Political Commentator. We were certainly sorry to see them go, but look what we have here..this week marks the debut of a new Council member, Ask Marion and the return of an old friend, The Independent Sentinel. Our regular readers are familiar with both of these fine writer's work from their frequent appearance in our Honorable Mentions, and in The Independent Sentinel's case, her previous work as part of the Council.

Those of who haven't had the pleasure of reading them are definitely in for a treat.

Watcher's Council Activities: My latest piece over at The Times of Israel, 'Baseless Hatred, Israel's Ultimate Price Tag' can be read here.

WoW community member, Council Alumnus and noted author Trevor Loudon is on a book and speaking tour currently. As Tom White over at VA Right said, if he's speaking anywhere near you, go see him! I certainly second that.

His next scheduled appearance is a speech before the Medina OH TEA Party
The Lodge, 600 High Street, Wadsworth, OH
Thursday, January 30, 2014 — 7:00 pm

You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcher’s Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didn’t get nominated by a Council member? No worries.

To bring somethingto my attention, simply head over to Joshuapundit and post the title a link to the piece you want considered along with an e-mail address ( which won't be published) in the comments section no later than Monday 6PM PST in order to be considered for our honorable mention category. Then return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week when it comes out Wednesday morning

Simple, no?

It's a great way of exposing your best work to Watcher’s Council readers and Council members. while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?

Pete Seeger is dead today, at 94. And this is what our Dear Leader had to say about it:

"Once called “America’s tuning fork,” Pete Seeger believed deeply in the power of song. But more importantly, he believed in the power of community – to stand up for what’s right, speak out against what’s wrong, and move this country closer to the America he knew we could be. Over the years, Pete used his voice – and his hammer – to strike blows for worker’s rights and civil rights; world peace and environmental conservation. And he always invited us to sing along. For reminding us where we come from and showing us where we need to go, we will always be grateful to Pete Seeger. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Pete’s family and all those who loved him."

Now, aside from being someone who made quite a contribution to American music, Pete Seeger was also a hard core communist and apologist for Stalin during the time when 'Uncle Joe' murdered over 100 million people. The forced collectivization, the murder of political opponents, the show trials, the forced famine in the Ukraine that murdered at least 3 million people, the gulags...none of it mattered at all to Pete Seeger, that 'champion of justice and freedom'.

By his own admission, he was a red diaper baby, someone who was brought into the party by his parents and raised under what the Comintern called Party Discipline. That meant you followed the orders of the Kremlin, no questions asked. And that's exactly what Pete Seeger did. He claimed that he 'drifted out of the party in the 1950's', but he never once lifted his voice to oppose Soviet tyranny until the game was almost over, in 1982 when he made statements in favor of Poland's Solidarity movement.

After the 1939 Hitler-Stalin pact, there were some commies who woke up to what that meant and left the Party. But not Pete Seeger! Whatever Hitler was doing to the Jews was no never mind to him. As a member of the Almanac singers (later called the Weavers) with a fellow party member, Woody Guthrie, he totally followed the Moscow line, calling for America to stay out of WWII...here's a sample lyric: "Franklin D., listen to me,/You ain’t a-gonna send me ’cross the sea.”

He and his fellow Party members lobbied aggressively against aid to Britain, American re-armament and against FDR's selective service act, which passed in 1940 by one vote. If it hadn't, things would have been very different after Pearl Harbor. The Almanac's 78 recording, Songs for John Doe was so subversive even Eleanor Roosevelt, a fan of the group, denounced it.

That changed abruptly in June, 1940, when Hitler invaded Russia. Then, Seeger and his friends started singing a brand new tune, urging America to get into the war and save Stalin's posterior. In a true 1984-style example of revisionism, Seeger and his pals had all the available copies of Songs for John Doe recalled and destroyed...although enough copies remained in a few people's hands so that we can see exactly how hypocritical, radical and anti-American these people were.

After the war, Seeger remained active in shilling for Stalin and his successors. He was one of the leaders calling for clemency for the Rosenbergs, the spies who gave Stalin the atom bomb. Yes, the great world peace advocate had no problem with a homicidal maniac and mass murderer like Stalin getting the bomb.

In 1945, Seeger put together something called People's Songs, Inc, an organization designed to “create, promote and distribute songs of labor and the American People.”

"People's Songs is a vital Communist front … one which has spawned a horde of lesser fronts in the fields of music, stage entertainment, choral singing, folk dancing, recording, radio transcriptions and similar fields. It especially is important to Communist proselytizing and propaganda work because of its emphasis on appeal to youth, and because of its organization and technique to provide entertainment for organizations and groups as a smooth opening wedge for Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist propaganda."

Seeger was actually subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1955, but refused to answer questions about his communist past and eventually refused to answer subpoenas. He was actually tried and convicted of contempt of Congress, but his conviction was overturned over a technicality.

Along with his commendable support for civil rights for blacks in America, Seeger continued to be a shill for the Soviets and ultra-Left causes throughout the years.

He was a big advocate of unilateral disarmament by the West, including the Soviet's phony International Peace Petition. In spite of his image as a champion of freedom, he had nothing to say about the Soviet repression of democratic revolutions in Hungary in 1956, or in Czechoslovakia in 1968. And of course, he was a supporter of Fidel Castro and his executioner, Che Guevara.

He was predictably against the Vietnam War, but had nothing to say about the North Vietnamese gulags and fascist repression after the war, or Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge's Killing Fields in Cambodia.

He opposed President Reagan's rearmament of the West after the Carter years, and was huge advocate of he Nuclear Freeze Movement of the 1980s, a Soviet-sponsored initiative that would have frozen Soviet nuclear and military superiority in place and stopped Reagan from defeating the Evil Empire.

In 1999, along with Ed Asner and fellow communist Ossie Davis, Seeger was on the advisory board of Mumia 911, a group that championed cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamal, AKA Wesley Cook.

Jamal, a Black Panther murdered police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1981 execution style during a routine traffic stop, according to three eyewitnesses. Two policemen and one hospital security guard testified to the court that while Mumia Abu Jamal was being brought into the hospital following the altercation with Faulkner, he shouted repeatedly, “I shot the mother f---er, and I hope the mother f---er dies.” He was unanimously convicted by a racially mixed jury. Faulkner left behind a wife and three young children.

Seeger and Mumia 911 were part of an ultra-Left chorus agitating for his freedom, along with another communist front, the National Lawyer's Guild.They wanted him freed, and thanks to their efforts Mumia's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. Unlike Faulkner, Mumia Abu Jamal had a high profile cheering section that included a number of celebrities including Seeger, and they had just enough clout to keep him alive when by all rights he should have been executed for murder.

In 2000, Seeger found another murderous dictator he could support, Saddam Hussein. He was a signatory to a New York Times ad that called for an immediate end to U.S. economic sanctions against Saddam's regime, charging America with “killing … over one million Iraqis, mostly children under five.” Fellow signers included Rosie O’Donnell, the Berrigan brothers, Ed Asner, Rev. James Lawson, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Martin Sheen, Ramsey Clark, Howard Zinn, and Noam Chomsky, among other prominent Leftists.

Even 9/11 didn't make this man stop and think about the filth he was encased in. In 2003, he signed on to to a “Statement of Conscience” crafted by Not In Our Name, a front group of the Revolutionary Communist Party that condemned the Bush administration’s “stark new measures of repression,” and any semblance of trying to defend America against Islamist fascism.

And as you can imagine, Seeger had a soft spot for the Occupy crowd too. On October 21, 2011, Pete Seeger was part of a solidarity march with Occupy Wall Street to Columbus Circle in New York City.

No wonder President Obama was so in love with him.I'm surprised the president didn't hang a Medal of Freedom around his neck.

So now, he's passed on.

Since President Obama has already posted his tribute to the man, I suppose I should post mine.

Pete Seeger was a lifelong advocate of evil, whatever he might have thought of it if he even bothered to think. He used his considerable talents to promote it and influence people to support it during his entire life. He saw what he wanted to see and ignored what was inconvenient. He mouthed support for 'freedom', but was himself a force for repression and slavery.

He advocated for civil rights for black Americans, but was at the same time a prominent and consistent advocate and apologist for those who sought to deny civil rights for others, in many cases even the right to life itself. He was a champion of injustice and human misery. He never murdered anyone, but just as there were a lot of Nazis who never shoved a Jew into the ovens, his voice was a major part of the foul chorus raised in praise and support for those that murdered millions.Like Leni Riefenstahl, he's proof that talent and artistry do not necessarily make an admirable human being.

In sum, he was a hypocrite whose actions supported everything he claimed to be against.

Rest in peace...perhaps. But I have a feeling that when Pete Seeger goes to his eternal reward, some hard questions are going to be asked. And before that particular court, unlike the 1950's, he's going to have to answer.

'But,on the other hand, I'm a well connected Democrat senator who's retiring and knows where a few bodies are buried, so....'

Unbelievable, even in the amateur hour that is our current White House.

One of the most important ambassadorships in the world, and they want to send appoint someone with no diplomatic experience whatsoever, whose knowledge of foreign policy in general is not his strong point and who admits he knows nothing about China, where he's supposed to negotiate with the Chinese and represent our interest.

Not only is this rank stupidity, but it's an open insult to the flag and the people of the United States by the current occupant of the Oval Office.

And what's even worse is that as a member of the senatorial club, he's almost sure to be confirmed, just like Chuck Hagel was.

Monday, January 27, 2014

Look at the faces, and the photographs. Look at the faces of the Germans forced to view what almost all them knew was going on.

Look at the German officer who shot himself rather than face justice for the atrocities he had committed.

Little did he know that the odds were in his favor for getting a light sentence and living to a peaceful old age.Out of the German military and officials who directly participated in the Holocaust, almost all of them were out of jail in less than ten years,if they were even imprisoned at all.

The Holocaust was a unique experience in human history, where the armed might of a nation made the extermination of unarmed and defenseless people who posed no threat to them a war aim. Unlike other similar episodes, the idea wasn't enslavement for profit, or military victory, or driving people out of a coveted territory for nationalist reasons and simple theft and plunder. It was a war against the Jews, an organized campaign whose purpose was murder, the complete slaughter of every Jewish man, woman and child, plain and simple. Remember that the next time you hear some idiot misuse the term 'Holocaust'.

'Never Again' is more than a slogan. And here's a message to the Tribe, especially those of you who take pleasure in denigrating Israel or think it means nothing to you. It is a strong vibrant and powerful Israel that turns "Never Again' from a slogan into something with a promise of becoming reality. It ensures that this will never happen to Jews again, either to you or to Jews in far off countries like Ethiopia, Yemen, Iraq....

If you haven't been on the rec'ving end of coppers gone mad with their own power - YaY! for you!!
Because once you have - you see how scary things are going. As Sir Paul (or maybe it was Spongebob or the O"Reilly Factor cat) once LOL'd - "A nation of sheep has a government of wolves"

The reality of our age is this: if the government chooses to crash through our doors, listen to our phone calls, read our emails and text messages, fine us for growing vegetables in our front yard, jail us for raising chickens in our backyard, forcibly take our blood and saliva, seize and search us, there’s little we can do to stop them. At least, not at that particular moment. When you’re face to face with a government agent who is not only armed to the hilt and inclined to shoot first and ask questions later but also woefully ignorant of the fact that he works for you, if you value your life, you don’t talk back.

It used to be that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which enshrines the rights to free speech, free press, assembly, religious exercise and petitioning one’s government for a redress of grievances, was considered the most critical of the amendments in the Bill of Rights.

The right to speak freely doesn’t help you when your home is being invaded by a SWAT team or the government is spying on your emails and phone calls, and tracking your whereabouts. It certainly doesn’t help you when you’re in the back of a police cruiser or face-to-face with a cop hyped up on the power of his badge. In fact, exercising your right to free speech in such scenarios today, even nominally, will more than likely get you pepper sprayed, tasered, shot or at the very least charged with resisting arrest or disorderly conduct.

No, see, it's the Fourth Amendment, which demands that we be “secure” in our persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government and, consequently, stands as a bulwark against the police state, is, in fact, the most critical.

Unfortunately,get so focused on the Fourth Amendment’s requirement of a warrant before government agents can invade our property (a requirement that means little in an age of kangaroo courts and rubberstamped warrant requests) that we fail to properly appreciate the first part of the statement declaring that we have a right to be secure in our “persons, houses, papers, and effects.”

What this means is that the Fourth Amendment’s protections were intended to not only follow us wherever we go but also apply to all that is ours—whether you’re talking about our physical bodies, our biometric data, our possessions, our families, or our way of life.

However, in an 8-1 ruling in Kentucky v. King (2011), the U.S. Supreme Court sanctioned SWAT teams smashing down doors of homes or apartments without a warrant if they happen to “suspect” you might be doing something illegal in your home.

Arresting Americans for altogether legal activities such as picking their kids up from school, holding Bible studies at home, and selling goat cheese. Unfortunately, our government’s tendency towards militarization and overcriminalization, in which routine, everyday behaviors become targets of regulation and prohibition, have resulted in Americans getting arrested for making and selling unpasteurized goat cheese, cultivating certain types of orchids, feeding a whale, holding Bible studies in their homes, and picking their kids up from school. This last incident actually happened in Tennessee, when Jim Howe, a father of two elementary school-aged kids, was arrested and jailed after insisting on walking his son home as soon as school let out rather than waiting 35 minutes for carpoolers to get their kids first.

Jailing Americans for profit. At one time, the American penal system operated under the idea that dangerous criminals needed to be put under lock and key in order to protect society. Today, as states attempt to save money by outsourcing prisons to private corporations, imprisoning Americans in private prisons run by mega-corporations has turned into a cash cow for big business, with states agreeing to maintain a 90% occupancy rate in privately run prisons for at least 20 years. And how do you keep the prisons full? By passing laws aimed at increasing the prison population, including the imposition of life sentences on people who commit minor or nonviolent crimes such as siphoning gasoline.

Simply Jews: I think that we all (all technologically developed countries) are moving to a situation where eavesdropping of high-tech kind becomes more and more available and cheap to the level of commodity. Even a private person, sufficiently technically-minded and of an exceedingly voyeuristic mind, is able today to listen to our mobile calls and track our location. For the states, suitably equipped and able to bend the law's ear, all possible means to do the same on a grander scale are more easily available, of course.

Since the curious state of affairs, where the act of secret surveillance itself is covered by another set of laws or regulations that make the mere intent of such surveillance secret, a person under watch may never know he/she is spied upon.

But the real test of our freedom comes when the use of the surveillance crosses the border between protection of state and its citizens' well being into interference with our rights. Be it a hacker that divulges our private information for the sake of it or the state that applies pressure on us in pursuance of some murky goals - we all are vulnerable to unethical use of our private information, even the most innocent and pure.

And if we don't succeed (and quite soon) to build into our democracies enough protective measures to prevent misuse or malicious use of information against us: the whole idea of democracy and our personal freedom may go down the drain.

JoshuaPundit: There's no question in my mind that we are slowly evolving into a police state. And I don't see it as a question of technology so much as the attitude of our ruling class. After all, it isn't the tools that do the work, but the hands that control them.While the NSA spying is troublesome, (particularly without our being in a declared state of war) the real problem lies in who the data collected is going to be controlled by, and the political use it will be put to. I think we're already seeing that.

We have a president and an administration with utter contempt for the Constitution, who feel no compunction at changing laws at will, using the IRS as their personal goon squad to go after perceived political enemies, using the Justice Department to suppress 'enemy' votes in two separate elections while encouraging voter fraud where it suits them and defying the will of Congress repeatedly.

And they've largely gotten away with it, something new in our history. Any president in the past guilty of these things would have been impeached long ago.

This is the end result of the Gramschian warfare the Soviet Comintern unleashed against America in 1920. The Comintern and the Soviet Union may be history, but the corruption of our institutions and culture and the poisonous ideology that it spawned is alive and well.

I even see it in the attitudes the American people are developing. The majority of Americans no longer trust their government, but have become used to the idea of an entrenched Ruling Class manipulating the country for its own benefit and plundering it at will. Many of them see the police nowadays as simply enforcers for the Ruling class and its diktats, not protectors of the average person.They largely no longer trust the media, and with good reason.This is very different from how things were even in th recent past.

These are all radical changes that have been evolving slowly but have become much obvious and strongly implemented in the last 5 years. We still have many of the apparent trappings of freedom, but the walls are definitely closing in,and unless this process is reversed even those will gradually erode away.

I can feel it.

Liberty's Spirit: Many will talk about the NSA spying, drone warfare, rendition, Gitmo, IRS scandal and other questionable actions by our government. But in truth the Supreme Court has, overseen, or will oversee, these abuses and will honestly decide what will become of those laws and governmental actions. Does it move us toward a police state or is this just the reality in our technological age? Balancing scientific discovery with war, politics and economic reality is not easy. Our society has to develop a way to deal with these new challenges and deal with them honestly.

Furthermore, as long as discussion and political argument can be had then we have not reached a point of no return. As long as we have members of the political class who are willing to counterbalance the extremes of the alternate party then we are still a free nation. As long as we have access to alternative media that can smoke out the lies and disingenuous nature of the ruling party then we have not lost our freedom. As long as we can move about, educate ourselves as we please, or work at our preferred profession, then we have not lost our way and a police state is not a reality.

But ultimately, the true test of whether we are moving toward a police state will occur when the people no longer have the ability to defend themselves against a totalitarian government. History has shown us that the first thing a dictator does is to confiscate its citizens' guns. When our government places so many restrictions on owning a weapon that it makes it onerous to defend your own home, then and only then will we move toward a police state.

On this Holocaust Remembrance Day it is also important to remember that everything that dictatorships did, or still do, everything the Nazis, the Communists and even the brutal evil we see today in Syria, was allowed by a nation's law. Law will not protect us if we do not stand up for what is right and just in this world. We cannot have freedom at the point of the government's gun or when we live in fear of our own government.

The law and the US Constitution do not give us the right to defend ourselves. Our rights come from nature and nature's God. It is our human right to be a free people.And a free people have the right of self-defense.

As Jefferson wrote, “The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.” Molon Labe.

The Glittering Eye: I'm not sure how you'd go about quantifying that. While I'm concerned about the rule of law and excessive police power, I think there are also countervailing forces. It's becoming harder and harder to do anything without leaving a record of it and once there's a record it will have a way of becoming public with alarming speed.

Although the authorities are trying their darnedest to prevent the recording and public recording of their activities, that's fighting an uphill and, I think, ultimately futile battle. Sunlight is our friend.

Nice Deb :Wikipedia defines a police state as "a state in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic, and political life of the population. A police state typically exhibits elements of totalitarianism and social control, and there is usually little or no distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the executive.

The inhabitants of a police state experience restrictions on their mobility, and on their freedom to express or communicate political or other views, which are subject to police monitoring or enforcement. Political control may be exerted by means of a secret police force which operates outside the boundaries normally imposed by a constitutional state."

Yes, we're moving closer to a police state and it started with Holder's refusal to prosecute the New Black Panthers for clear voter intimidation in 2009 - a clear signal that under his leadership at the DOJ, there would be selective enforcement of the nation's laws. After five years of Holder's corrupt, discriminatory hiring practices, we now have the most radically political DOJ in history. They strictly apply the letter of the law when it comes to conservatives, but totally disregard laws that effect favored constituencies. A complete housecleaning of the DOJ is going to be needed if a Republican ever wins another national election. And by complete housecleaning, I mean EVERYBODY.

As it stands, with left-wing radicals in places of power throughout the government, it should come as no surprise to anyone that entire departments have been weaponized to target the president's enemies. One of the articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon included his alleged attempt at misusing of the IRS. What Obama has done with the IRS goes way beyond that.

Just the way the president and his allies speak about conservatives - as if they're dangerous "extremists" in need of some kind of check - is a scandal in and of itself. They talk about the decent, God-fearing, law abiding, patriotic, constitution-loving tea party as if they're enemies of the state. And this in turn inspires the the Regime's depraved fellow travelers throughout the institutional left - low-lifes who exemplify everything that is wrong with America - to pile on with even more vicious and deplorable language. They are the Regime's shock troops.

And we have the perfect storm with an MSM that looks the other way when Wendy Davis' allies chant "hail Satan" in the Texas State House (nothing to see here!) - but gang up on Mike Huckabee with a vengeance when he ridicules Democrats for over-politicizing female reproductive issues. What's truly pathetic is - when an authoritarian Regime took over a country in the past, the press didn't voluntarily give up their freedom to communicate political truths. Our MSM does it quite cheerfully and eagerly. They operate under the assumption that the public doesn't have a right to know what it doesn't need to know - i.e. that which stands in the way of "fundamental transformation."

Obama has been as clear as he can possibly be that he will bypass Congress to inflict his ruinous policies on the American people. He has dictated from on high what parts of ObamaCare can be followed, and which parts can be delayed - because we're now living in a country in which the president can bully insurance companies into doing whatever he tells them to do regardless of the law. The law is apparently whatever Obama wants it to be at any given moment - an exercise of raw political power by the executive - that's pretty much the dictionary definition of "police state."

The Independent Sentinel: I don't think we are living in a police state but I do think we are headed in that direction and it could happen.

The Administration is completely lawless.

Our rule of law is not being followed.

Eric Holder will prosecute crimes against whites but not blacks if J. Christian Adams is to be believed and if the facts are to be believed. Holder wouldn't prosecute the New Black Panthers but he will prosecute one of the few whites guilty of a knockout crime. Knockout crimes are also known as polar bear hunting because they are aimed at whites generally.

The military is being transformed into a social work agency and the people working in government agencies are being armed.

Chuck Schumer just told the IRS to target conservatives again and no one in the mainstream media cares because they are of the same mind as he is. We no longer have a free press.

The president will give a speech on Tuesday in which he will declare his right to disregard the Separation of Powers.

Everything seems upside down but it's not if you believe we are heading towards totalitarianism and if you believe what we are dealing with is tyranny.

It reminds me of an incident I observed in Italy. A gypsy put a piece of cardboard under the chin of a tourist and at the same time, she started to pull his camera off from around his neck. I yelled at her to stop while the victim stood dazed and confused - helpless really.

She ran off without the camera and he wandered off without saying thank you. The reason it went down like this was because his mind didn't accept what was taking place - it was too strange and unexpected. That's what the activities of this government feel like.

The Tea Party people are terrorists because they are waving flags and quoting the Constitution but it's perfectly fine for a governor to tell conservatives they aren't welcomed in his state. Occupiers, who were almost totally comprised of communists and socialists and who seek the overthrow of our government, are admired, and courses are given in colleges extolling them.

This is not normal.

This president is trying to change our core belief systems, our work ethics, our adherence to religious values.

Anything could happen under this Administration and in this climate. A police state is possible.

Well, there you have it.

Make sure to tune in every Monday for the Watcher’s Forum. And remember, every Wednesday, the Council has its weekly contest with the members nominating two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. The votes are cast by the Council, and the results are posted on Friday morning.It’s a weekly magazine of some of the best stuff written in the blogosphere, and you won’t want to miss it.

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Sunday, January 26, 2014

Today is the day our friends and allies in Oz celebrate their country.Australia is one of America's most important and loyal friends in the world. They've fought shoulder to shoulder with America in every conflict since WWI, even in places like Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan where they came simply because that's what allies do.

January 26th, 1787 is the day what Australians refer to as the First Fleet returned to Botany Bay, went ashore and established the first settlement in Australia. It was originally intended to be a penal colony.

From that unlikely beginning came the vibrant nation we know today.

So let the celebration rock!!

And yeah, it's summer over there now, which means it's beach weather...time for bathing suits, barbecues and beer...

Australia's veterans come out to honor the country they served so honorably: